THE COLDEST CAPITAL in the world is Ulan Baator, Mongolia, where the temperature gets down to 40 degrees below zero. It’s so cold, homeless people sleep in the heating ducts below the city.

But Louise Owyang, a Montclair resident, is trying to help. On July 1, she shipped 127 knitted woolen hats to Mongolia. She knitted them all herself over the past eight months, and no two hats are alike.

“I’ll look at the yarn I’m using and think, ‘This color ought to go with that,'” she said. “Then I’ll add colors and patterns as I go along. It’s a little bit like art.”

So which hat is her favorite?

“Well, I look at one and think, ‘That’s pretty cute,’ and then I look at another one and think, ‘No that’s my favorite.’ So I guess they all are.”

Owyang knits almost every waking moment, whether she’s reading, talking, cooking, eating or watching TV. At age 82, she still works one day a week as a registered nurse in Stonestown, and she knits while riding the Muni Metro to her job, too.

“From my earliest years, I remember her always having her hands occupied,” said her niece, Carla Din. “She has an amazing ability to create something beautiful in no time.”

HOW TO HELP
Tax-deductible donations can be sent to the Dulaan Project, F.I.R.E., 107 North San Francisco St., Studio 4, Flagstaff, AZ 86001. Knitters can get involved by visiting www.fireprojects.org/dulaan.htm.